Monday, September 29, 2008

Media marauders

The newsmakers are the news

Frequent assaults on scribes covering the Sri Lanka-LTTE conflict have triggered outrage among both local and international media rights groups. On March 14 morning a miscreant, wielding an iron club, ambushed Anurasiri Hettige as he waited for a bus in a Colombo suburb. Hettige became the fifth employee of the state television corporation Rupavahini to be attacked or threatened in the last three months.

Media rights groups say the attacks are linked to the December 27 incident that saw government minister Mervyn Silva storming into Rupavahini and abusing senior staff. Silva, who was upset by a news programme, had then allegedly been assaulted and daubed in paint by angry Rupavahini employees....Continue